Tuesday, March 25, 2014

OK M3.1 earthquake in a new place

New places are exciting, especially in this earthquake business. Normally, we expect two shear wings joined by the thrust, appearing like a thunderbolt. This is what we have in New Madrid. But I think this is only for a fully grown NM. A baby NM like OK can take other geometries. Much like Arkansas, we can see a single shear wing, with the sense of shear reversed on both sides of the thrust.

Yeah, this M3.1 could be the first! If the location is right. We can perhaps now expect other earthquakes marching down that shear wing. So exciting! More stress liberation along the shears makes it more likely for my big thrust earthquake, which is extraordinarily late for the party.